Dana+Ditman+LMF+Analysis

//Learning Motivation and Fun//
==== In the interest of helping my team design a game that will appeal to the greatest number of users; I looked at the content characteristics identified in the //Leaning Motivation and Fun// database. The data suggest that there are strong commonalities among these educational experiences. Our 164 interviews reveal the following frequencies of content descriptions for a //fun learning experience//: ==== Content Type: Hobby – 73 Academic - 66 Relevance: High - 75 Medium – 36 Challenge: High – 71 Medium – 60 Fantasy: Low – 96 Medium – 37 Abstraction: Very Concrete – 62 Somewhat – 23 Mix – 52 Human Interest: Low- 82 Medium – 34 Our largest group of participants remembers fun learning experiences that are: related to hobbies or academics, highly relevant to past experiences or future goals, highly challenging, low in fantasy, very concrete and low in human interest. Interesting and definitive as this aggregate description seems to be, it doesn’t tell the whole story. I entered the highest scoring parameters into the search fields and got only six hits. Since our board games will be academic, I added the additional four that showed up when I switched the content type from //Hobby// to //Academic//. As I changed the field permutations, new videos turned up in one’s and two’s. I found it somehow reassuring that even though there is such a dominant message, it is not without nuance. There are many special interest groups within the whole. This is not a monolith … I digress …

1. A feeling of personal pride is an important outcome in a fun learning experience.
In looking for commonalities, I heard over and over again the importance of the feeling of personal pride and accomplishment gained through these experiences: Kenisha (#159) taught herself to type at age 22 and says that she is proud of that, Lexie (#24) learned archery in middle school PE and, Felicia (Myself #110) Learned plant taxonomy and a new way of teaching at age 22, Deborah got her pilot’s license, Andrew (#183) is proud of teaching himself how to drive with a manual transmission.

2. External recognition of skills acquired is a pleasurable and memorable experience for those who have enjoyed a fun learning experience.
Kenisha says that people are impressed that she set her goal and learned to type and she receives many compliments on her excellent typing. Andrew was pleased that his father approved of his driving technique. Bob (#59) enjoys the praise and compliments he receives when he performs piano techniques he has mastered.

3. Camaraderie among learners is often a component of a fun learning experience.
Felecia tells us how much the group experience enhanced her plant taxonomy learning. Denise (#170) enjoyed the good natured rivalry and esprit de corps in her SAY vocabulary prep. Whitney (#165) enjoyed learning while watching and riding along with other mountain bikers.

4. Life-long skills are often acquired in a fun learning experience.
Raul (#94) learned to play the guitar at 14 and it has enriched his whole life. Adam (#57) learned many artisanal skills as very young boy of 6 and says that those skills inform and enable his work today. Felecia says that the learning experience she had as an undergraduate heavily influences the way she teaches her students.

5. Hands on experience often leads to a fun learning experience.
All but one of the participants in this subgroup describes hands-on activity. 137/164 of the whole group of Learning Motivation and Fun participants remember an event that was highly concrete, somewhat concrete, or mixed concrete and abstract. Do we learn best by receiving information through every possible sensory portal? I’m not talking about cognitive overload, but the layered reinforcement of many sequences and iterations of a message. The body confirming what the eyes see and the ears hear …

Implications for my own work:
In looking at my own profile on the database and that of my daughter, I noticed that we are each singletons. Suspecting that most of us are singletons, I started entering the parameters for the participants in my little sub-group. So far they also are all singletons. There is a lot of satisfaction in serving the largest audience, but I like the edges and the outposts. My sense of personal accomplishment is in discovering a particular opportunity and addressing it. I think the good news, technology-wise, is spread in the education community by personal testimonial. Helping people identify and implement tools that will make their daily lives more pleasant and productive is what I enjoy most about what I do now. When that happens there are ripples of change as one person shares with another. I want to be better at identifying and addressing those opportunities. 